Last night I performed a series of tests with another player. In each trial the target was a fleet excelsior cruiser. For the first test Gravity Well I (tooltip for 960 damage a second) was used on a stationary cruiser exactly 2km away and dealt an average of 770 damage after resistances, acceptable considering the crusier had about 20% kinetic resistance.

The same test was again repeated, Gravity well III (tooltip for 1600.1 damage a second) was used on a stationary cruiser exactly 2km away. Interestingly enough, the damage averaged at 668 damage a second after resistances, about a 59% damage reduction compared to the 20% reduction with gravity well I. Is this an intended feature to prevent high science damage against a target?